Recently, through the development of networks and small sized computers, the use of mobile computers for personal use to easily execute schedule programs, address book programs and memo note programs have rapidly spread. In such a mobile computer, when the power supply is turned on, a schedule application program, which is most frequently used, activated first and the top-level menu is displayed.
In a general workstation or personal computer, one machine is commonly used by multiple users. It is necessary to confirm the identity of the person who is about to use the computer. Therefore, the user must input his password to confirm his identity after log-in. By contrast, in a mobile computer, it is prerequisite that the user is only one person, and it is not necessary to confirm the identity of the person who is about to use it. Therefore, input of the password is not necessary. However, in case the user leaves the mobile computer behind, it is possible that the person who next turns on the power supply may be confirmed as the true user. In short, someone other than the true user can access personal information such as schedule information, which constitutes a problem from the viewpoint of security. In order to avoid this problem, some mobile computers--like workstations and personal computers--request the user to input a password when he turns on the power supply. However, in this case, the user must input his password whenever he turns on the power supply, which complicates the user's operation of the mobile computer.
Furthermore, nowadays, many mobile computers are used by users such as businessmen who frequently work outside of the office. This kind of user connects the mobile computer to the company network by telephone or directly to the company network when working at the office. In this way, information necessary for customers (for example, stocks price, exchange rate, profile of new customers) is downloaded to the mobile computer. If necessary, the mobile computer can be connected to the company network from a public telephone to download the information. When only a small quantity of information is to be downloaded, or when a high-spread communication circuit is used, the information can be downloaded in several seconds.
However, if a large quantity of information such as image data is to be downloaded, or when using a low speed communication network, downloading can take several minutes. In this case, it is burdensome for a busy user to have to watch the mobile computer until the download is completed, when he can then turn off the power supply. Furthermore, if the user is distracted by other business while waiting for the downloading process to be completed, he sometimes forgets to return altogether. This results in the complete depletion of the battery power supply.
Furthermore, users such as businessmen sometimes negotiate with the customer by using application program (for example, simulation of insurance amount in case of life insurance, assessed amount simulation of used car and estimated price simulation of a new car in case of car business). At the end of the work day, the businessman creates a daily report describing the day's business and the customers with whom he did business. He sometimes connect the mobile computer to the company network from home or over the public telephone network and sends the report. It takes a long time for the businessman to create this kind of daily report. In order to save time, it is well known that the history of a user's operation is recorded and submitted as a daily report. In the mobile computer, personal information is stored as part of a schedule and address programs. Therefore, in this method, the personal information that the user does not intend to report is also recorded and included in the daily report. Even if the personal information is not included and if all of the operational history are included, the user feels the restraint that everything he does is managed. On the other hand, if all of the operational history is sent to a manager, the manager must extract the necessary information form the operational history. The fact that the quantity of information to be managed is large is a problem.
Furthermore, in the past, a keyword to predetermine a user's area of technical interest is registered as part of the user profile, and related information is periodically extracted from information media such as magazines or newspapers and sent to the personal information equipment. Users of such information presentation services request that the information presented be more fitted to their specific interests. Therefore, the user is asked whether he is interested in the presented information. However, in this method, the user must answer the inquiries in addition to watching the presented information and his burden increases. As another method, a question regarding the degree of interest of each inquiry is combined with the presented information and the user checks the degree of interest feedback his interest to the information presenter. However, in this method, the user must respond to the question in addition to viewing the presented information, and his burden increases. In such a situation, the user's interest can be guessed by the user's operation history. However, in the same way of the above-mentioned daily report, if all of the operation history is reported to the manager, the manager must extract the necessary information from the operation history, and the quantity of the information to be managed greatly increases.
As mentioned-above, the mobile computer of the prior art includes the following problems.
(1) In the mobile computer used by a predetermined user, if the user leaves the mobile computer behind, it is impossible to decide whether a person who uses the mobile computer next is the authorized user.
(2) If it takes a long time to transmit the information by wired or wireless and if the user does not turn off the power supply of the mobile computer after comfirming completion of the transmission, the battery will be depleted.
(3) In the method to uniformly obtain the user's operation history to support the daily report or customize the information presentation service, the user feels restrained to use the mobile computer. Furthermore, unnecessary information included in the operation history is also reported to the manager's side. Therefore, the manager's burden to extract the necessary information greatly increases.